Not to complicate things, with Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories and all, but one Chinese ID card has recently been found in Jinan, capital city of North China's Shandong Province, which apparently belongs to one Mr. Obama who lives at the White House.

President Obama's Chinese ID card. Hope he doesn't mind his nationality being listed as "Kenyan". Photo: weibo.com

But don't worry, the ID is fake. However, the ID card, one that is possessed by every Chinese citizen, is actually real. The perpetrator, a manager of an Internet Café used an lost ID card which belonged to a Mr. Wang who had lost it in 2010 and laminated over the original information with that of the US President Obama. This fake Obama ID card, along with a number of other ID cards, was used by the manager to register customers and came to the police’s attention during an inspection visit.

According the Chinese Internet real-name system, customers have to provide their real names and legitimate identification to the Internet access providers in order to sign up for Internet services at public places such as Internet Cafés. During the inspection, the police noticed that the registration information does not match the IDs of the customers and found the fake ID cards used for registrations carelessly scattered on the counter. The manager was fined 1,000 yuan for violating the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Resident Identity Cards and Regulations on the Administration of Business Sites of Internet Access Services.

The news hit Weibo, China’s twitter-like microblogging platform on May 29 and provided a large dose of amusement to the users. Many people complimented on the “talent” and “creativity” of the manager, with sarcasm all too apparent in the comments.

“Awesome! It’s worth the 1,000 yuan fine, brother!”

“Do you have one for Putin too?”

“The Chinese Internet speed is so terrific that the President of the United States is coming to China to surf the Internet!”

“This is the American dream of the Chinese fake ID makers.”